Corset



(No Model.)

A. P. LOOMER & 0. B. HOWD.

CORSET.

mvENToRs WITNESSES #6111 QD UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANDREW F. LOOMER, OF DERBY, AND CHARLES B. HOIVD, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNORS TO L. L. LOOMERS SONS, OF BRIDGEPORT,

CONNECTICUT.

CORSET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 562,839, dated June 30, 1896.

Application filed March 23, 1896.

T0 (0% whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, ANDREW F. LooMER, residing at Derby,in the county of New Haven, and CHARLES E. HOWD, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield, State of Connecticut, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Corsets; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention has for its object to provide a corset adapted for general use, but more especially adapted for use by ladies who desire to exercise freely, as, for example, in the gymnasium or in bicycle riding, and who desire the support and protection of a corset, but require in addition perfect freedom of movement, for example, such freedom of movement as will permit a lady to tie her shoe without inconvenience.

\Vith these ends in View we have devised the novel corset, of which the following de-' scription, in connection with the accompan ying drawings, is a specification, numbers being used to designate the several parts.

Figure 1 is an elevation of our novel corset, and Fig. 2 is a detail view illustrating a modification.

A denotes the halves of a corset, which may be made in any suitable manner, the construction. of the corset-bod y not being of the essence of our invention.

13 denotes elastic strips or sections at the hip portions of the corset, and C denotes the front stays, the essential feature of which is that the steels, which we have indicated by D, are at the upper ends only of the stays and terminate near the waist-line, so that the front of the corset below the waist-line is left perfect'lyfiexible. This construction, in connection with the elastic hip sections or strips, makes the entire front of the corset as flexible and comfortable as an unboned waist, all other portions of the corset, however, having the usual features of a corset and giving to the Serial No. 584, il4. (No model.)

wearer all of the support and protection for which corsets are worn.

1 denotes the usual studs, and 2 eyes by which the front stays are secured together above the waist-line. As the front steels terminate near the waist-line it is of course necessary to provide means for fastening the front of the corset below the waist-line other than the ordinary studs and eyes, and it is furthermore advantageous, as it adds to the comfort of the wearer, that the means for fastening the front of the corset below the waist-line shall be elastic. InFigs. l and 2 we have illustrated two slightly-differentmodes of fastening the front of the corset below the waistline.

In Fig. 1 one of the front stays is shown as provided with studs 3, and the other front stay as provided with an elastic strip 4:, which may be provided with buttonholes or with clasps similar to glove-clasps to engage studs, as indicated in the drawings. In Fig. 2 we have illustrated a form in which the fastening-strip attached to one of the front stays is partly elastic, as at 5, and partly of non-elastic cloth, as at 6. The fasteningstrip in this form is shown as provided with clasps to en gage studs similar to those in Fig. 1. It will be observed that the elastic strip, whether of a single piece, as in Fig. 1, or'if combined with an inelastic strip, as in Fig. 2, serves to close the opening in the corset below the steels. In each of these figures the complementary fastening devices for the front stays below the steels and below the waist-line are substantially the same, there being employed in each instance an elastic section to permit the freedom of movement above mentioned. Furthermore, the fastening devices are such that the lower portions of the front of the corset can be connected or separated as quickly as that portion which includes the steels, there being no lacing at this point.

Having thus described our invention, we claim- A corset comprising halves having elastic strips or sections at the hips and means ineluding steels for securing the halves together In testimony whereof We affix our signaabove thewaist-line, and the elastic strip setures in presence of two Witnesses. cured to one of the halves below the Waistline and the steels, said strip and the portion ANDREXV F. LOOMER.

5 of the corset-half opposite to it carrying the CHARLES B. HOXVD.

complementary buttoning devices, said strip \Vitnesses:

closing the opening in the corset below the A. M. WVOOSTER,

S. V. RICHARDSON.

steels. 

